


Nature Versus Nurture

by StoriesAreMagic



Series: Nature Versus Nurture [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:48:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28433430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoriesAreMagic/pseuds/StoriesAreMagic
Summary: When Lord Garmadon finds out that the ninja were temporarily turned into children, he comes up with a bold new plan for defeating Wu and his students, a plan that could change the battle forever.(De-aging fic. Takes place in Season Two, between "Child's Play" and "Wrong Place, Wrong Time.")
Series: Nature Versus Nurture [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2082636
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the first chapter of "Nature Versus Nature!" I'm so excited about this story, you have no idea. Anyway, suggested songs (none of which I own) for this chapter are "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston, "Love Like You by Rebecca Sugar, "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, and "Teach Your Children Well" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Beneath the deserted desert city of Ouroboros, deeper than where even the bravest adventurer would dare to go, a cockroach scuttled through an old empty tunnel. A tunnel that was empty for the moment, that was.  
Lights appeared around a nearby corner, drawing close to the bug. It ran away, instinctively fearful of both the light and the creatures carrying it.  
The shadows shivered and drew back as a small parade came slowly around the corner, simple torches held by humanoid snakes. They slithered as slowly as they dared, reluctant to get to the goal set upon them.  
But the snakes kept going. They had to, and they soon reached a large door set in stone. It opened creakily when the one in the lead knocked three times.  
The Serpentine, for of course that's what they were, walked single-file into a large dark room. They spread out, hissing to each other in anticipation.  
At the front of the room in a throne-like chair sat a man with four arms and blood-red eyes. That was the leader, Lord Garmadon, who was generally terrifying, completely out of plans, and occasionally chucked pebbles at people with bad ideas.  
Garmadon sighed and leaned forward in his chair, rubbing his temples. "Does anyone have any ideas to defeat the ninja?"  
"Oh! Oh!" One Constrictai foot soldier raised his hand eagerly. "How about a giant ham sssand-"  
"NO GIANT HAM SANDWICHES!" Garmadon yelled, and he threw a rock that hit the Constrictai on the head.  
"How about a giant sssalami sssandwich?" A Hypnobrai scout suggested, licking his lips.  
Garmadon didn't even deign to give that a reply (other than a pebble, which he threw extra hard). "Now. How about something that actually has a chance of working? Hm?"  
"We could sssteal a Grundle ssskeleton and bring it to life to hunt the ninja," a Venomari soldier offered.  
Garmadon groaned, using one of his upper arms to hold his head wearily. "We already did that. Didn't we just do that? Yes, we just did that just the other day. It did nothing. The Grundle didn't even come to life."  
"That'sss not entirely true," a Fangpyre scout said slowly. "The Grundle came to life and wasss defeated, but only by accident, becaussse the ninja had sssome ssspecial tea or sssomething."  
Lord Garmadon looked up, confused. "What?"  
"It wasss in the newssspaper," the Fangpyre scout explained. He held up a newspaper. "Sssee? The Grundle attacked sssome random kidsss at a comic book shop."  
"Let me see that!" Lord Garmadon demanded.  
The Fangpyre scout with the newspaper scurried up to Lord Garmadon and handed it to him.  
"Those aren't some random kids," Lord Garmadon realized, holding up the newspaper and pointing to the photo on the front cover. "Those are the ninja as children! But how?"  
The Fangpyre scout shrugged. "I guessss turning back the clock on the Grundle turned back time on the ninja too sssince they were sssso clossse to the Grundle when it happened. But it sssaysss in the article that the ninja showed up too, ssso the weird tea that turned the Grundle back to bonesss mussst have turned the ninja into, well, ninja again."  
"So the ninja were children for a short period of time," Lord Garmadon mused. "Perhaps we could use that to our advantage."  
"But they're normal now, and even when they were kids they knew how to defeat usss," a Hypnobrai soldier argued. "And they ssstill beat the Grundle."  
Garmadon stopped pacing. He whirled around and pointed at the Fangpyre. "Say that again."  
"They ssstill beat the Grundle?" The Hypnobrai wondered.  
"No, before that," Garmadon stated.  
"But they're normal now?" The Hypnobrai asked.  
"No, after that," Garmadon said impatiently.  
"Even when they were kidsss, they knew how to defeat usss," the Hypnobrai repeated.  
"Exactly. They recognized us as the enemy and acted accordingly," Lord Garmadon thought out loud.  
"What are you sssaying?" Skales asked, slithering up behind him.  
Lord Garmadon smiled. "I'm saying that if the ninja didn't remember who to fight and how to defeat them, or even better, if they could be convinced that my brother is the enemy, we'd be home free."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the second chapter of "Nature Versus Nurture!" The suggested songs for this chapter are "New Soul" by Yael Naim, "1945" by Jamie Grace, "I'm Just A Kid (Clean)" by Simple Plan, and "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry.

Cole yawned, eyes opening slowly and closing again. He was so tired. Maybe Daddy (no, Dad, Cole was a big boy, he didn't say stuff like "Daddy" anymore), maybe Dad would let him stay in bed if he pretended to be too asleep to get up.  
He rolled over, frowning. Actually, he didn't really want to stay in bed. His bed was really hard, and his pajamas didn't feel right.  
In fact, nothing felt right.  
Cole sat bolt upright. He wasn't wearing his pajamas. Instead, he was wearing what looked like a sheet tied around his body in a kind of dress. Plus, he wasn't in his bed. He wasn't even in his bedroom.  
He was in a weird room with gray walls, floor, and ceiling that, when he looked closer, were made of stone. There was a door set in one wall and Cole got to his feet slowly, holding his head with one hand.  
He stumbled over to the door, his arms and legs seeming the wrong size for his body all of a sudden. He tripped once over his sheet-pajamas, sprawling right up next to the door. Cole picked himself up and tried the handle. It was locked.  
"Tha's weird," he muttered, voice thick with tiredness. He pushed at the door feebly, still slightly sleepy, but it didn't give.  
Sighing, Cole turned his back to the door and leaned against it, sliding down to the ground. All of a sudden, he realized he wasn't alone. There were three other boys in the room with him, all dressed in the same grayish sheet-pajamas and all still asleep.  
Wait. Only two were asleep. The third one was sitting in a corner, staring at him with blank eyes.  
Cole tripped over to the awake boy, slipping now and then on his too-big totally-not-a-dress. He sat down across from the much smaller boy, putting on his best smile. "Hi. I'm Cole. Who're you?"  
The boy watched him silently.  
Cole didn't let that stop him. "Do you know why we're here? Wherever here is, that is."  
The boy just stared at him.  
Fine. Two could play at that game. Cole stared right back at the other boy.  
The kid was a whole lot smaller than him, with blond hair and very big eyes. He looked really confused.  
"Are you scared?" Cole asked bluntly.  
The smaller boy just kept looking at him blankly.  
"It's okay. I'm not scared of anything, so I can protect you," Cole reassured clumsily. Some weird part of him felt like the little boy should respond to that with a funny misunderstanding, but Cole shrugged that thought off and scooted closer.  
The boy pressed himself against the wall, now looking almost scared as well as confused.  
Quickly remembering that they had just met, Cole scooted back again. "Sorry. I forgot I don't actually know you. I bet your parents prob'ly told you not to talk to strangers, huh?"  
The littler boy shook his head. Then he paused and nodded, then he paused and shook his head again.  
"You don't know?" Cole prodded.  
The boy nodded. He didn't know.  
Suddenly, there was a loud yawn from across the room. Cole whirled around into a standing position and stepped toward the noise, vaguely aware the blond boy behind him was pressed tightly against the wall again.  
One of the other boys had woken up and was looking around with confused eyes. He had spiky brown hair and was lots taller than the blond boy, but still smaller than Cole himself, Cole noted smugly.  
The boy stood and shakily walked over toward Cole. He stood only a foot away, blinking groggily. Cole waited for him to say something but the boy just stood there, rocking back and forth on his heels and scowling.  
"Hi," Cole prompted. "My name's Cole. What's yours?"  
"'M Kai," was the sullen answer. "Any idea why we're here or where here is?"  
Cole shook his head helplessly. "I don't have a clue."  
Frowning, Kai said unhappily, "I don't like this. I don't like it all. Hey, who's that?"  
"Him?" Cole asked, pointing behind himself. "I dunno. He hasn't said anything. I don't think he can talk."  
"He's sure old enough to talk. Lemme see," Kai said skeptically. He went around Cole and crouched in front of the little boy. "Hey. What's your name?"  
The boy stared at him blankly.  
"Yeah, I'm done," Kai declared after a few seconds, standing.  
"That's it?" Cole asked, amused. "You're not very patient."  
Kai shrugged. "Nope."  
"So for our escape team, we've got you, me, an' a little kid who doesn't talk," Cole listed unhappily, not liking his chances.  
Pointing, Kai said simply, "We got him too."  
Cole turned and saw the final boy waking up with wide, scared eyes. He and Kai walked over without a second thought and helped the redhead to his feet. Cole noted that the boy was about right between Kai and the blond boy in height and age.  
"Who're you?" The boy asked, his high voice sounding suspicious. "W-w-where are w-w-we?"  
"I'm Cole, he's Kai, an' we don't know where we are," Cole explained. "I'm guessing you don't have any idea?"  
The boy shook his head, his lower lip trembling. He scrubbed at his eyes with one hand.  
"Come on," Kai complained. "He better not start crying or anything."  
That only seemed to make the boy more upset. His face scrunched up and his eyes started watering.  
"Hey, it's okay," Cole said quickly. He didn't want the kid to cry anymore than Kai did, he was just nicer about it. "What's your name?"  
"I'm J-j-jay."  
Kai raised an eyebrow and repeated mockingly, "J-j-jay?"  
"No, j-j-just J-j-jay," he tried to clarify. "J-j-jay. J-j-j-j-j-j-"  
"Kai, stop teasing the poor kid," Cole said sharply, then softened his tone as he turned to said 'poor kid'. "It's okay. He's just being stupid."  
Kai stuck out his tongue at Cole.  
Jay giggled, then furrowed his eyebrows. "Who's that?"  
Cole didn't even need to turn around to know Jay was pointing at the blond boy. "We've got no idea."  
"W-w-why don't you ask him?" Jay said.  
"'Cause he doesn't talk," Kai answered promptly.  
Jay frowned, but couldn't be concerned for long. It just wasn't in his nature. He bounced up and down, eager to get to know his new friends. "Do you w-wanna p-pl-p-play a game?"  
"Like what?" Kai asked, immediately interested.  
"Duck, duck, gray duck?" Jay suggested.  
Cole shook his head, forgetting his worries at the idea of having fun. "We've only got three people, four if you count Short-Light-And-Silent back there. It wouldn't work. Tag?"  
"We'd just run in circles," Kai dismissed. "There's nothing to duck behind. Same goes for Hide And Seek."  
"And there doesn't seem to b-be any cars or b-b-blocks in here," Jay observed. He wrinkled up his face. "There doesn't seem to b-be m-m-much of anything in here. It's b-boring."  
"Hmmm," Cole contemplated.  
Before they could come up with another idea for a game, there was a sound like a key in a keyhole. They jumped in shock and turned to the front of the room. The previously locked door was swinging wide open.


End file.
